Patrick Philip Vernon (born 1961)"Patrick Vernon" , Sankofa 2013: Teachers' Resource Pack, p. 41. is a British social commentator and political activist of Jamaican heritage, who works in the voluntary and public sector. He is a former Labour councillor in the
London Borough of Hackney
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. His career has been involved with developing and managing health and social care services, including mental health, public health, regeneration and employment projects. Also a film maker and amateur cultural historian, he runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, as founder of Every Generation and the "
100 Great Black Britons
''100 Great Black Britons'' is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for '' 100 Greatest Brit ...
" campaign."Every Generation Media Timeline". /ref> He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK. He was appointed a
Clore Fellow
The Clore Duffield Foundation is a registered charity in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2000 by the merger of two charitable foundations, the Clore Foundation of Charles Clore and his daughter's Vivien Duffield Foundation.
Formation
After ...
in 2007, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the
2012 Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours List 2012 was released on 16 June 2012 in the United Kingdom. on 11 June 2012 in Australia on 4 June 2012 in New Zealand,University of Wolverhampton.
Vernon led a successful campaign for 22 June to be recognized annually as Windrush Day, a national day acknowledging the migrant contribution to UK society, which was officially backed by the British government in 2018.Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth "Annual day of celebrations for the Windrush Generation" (Press release), UK Government, 18 June 2018.
In 2019 he was appointed Associate Director of Communities at the Centre for Ageing Better, a National Lottery Community funded charity looking to improve the lives of those approaching later life.
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
(now in the West Midlands), England, to Norris and Avis Vernon,"Patrick Vernon" , Black History & Heritage Wolverhampton. who had migrated to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s. Vernon traced his lineage as far back as the 1800s, to a village in Senegal called Kédougou.
He grew up in the All Saints and Penn Fields areas of Wolverhampton, attending Grove Junior School, Colton Hills, and Wulfrun College, before going on to study law at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He later undertook postgraduate studies at Warwick University. He moved to London in 1989.
Health and social care work
Vernon initially worked in health and social care, where he was a manager for Citizens Advice Bureau and a civil servant at the Department of Health and Local Government Association. He later served as director of the Brent Health Action Zone (Brent Primary Care Trust), and Regional Director for charity
MIND
The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...
. He later worked in the third sector for a number of organisations focussing on the mental health of refugees, immigrants and prisoners.Patrick Vernon profile at ''The Guardian''.
He was associate member for the Department of History of Medicine at Warwick University, an advisory board member for the mental health campaign Time To Change, and a former ministerial adviser for mental health. He was a member of the independent
Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
inquiry on Mental Health and Policing.
Every Generation Media and family history work
In 2002 Vernon founded Every Generation Media to develop education programmes, publications and films on cultural heritage and family history,"Patrick Vernon OBE" Specialist Speakers. with the Every Generation website becoming one of the main sites on family history for African and Caribbean communities in Britain.Kimone Thompson "Patrick Vernon's journey home – A Jamaican Briton traces his roots" ''
Jamaica Observer
''Jamaica Observer'' is a daily newspaper published in Kingston, Jamaica. The publication is owned by Butch Stewart, who chartered the paper in January 1993 as a competitor to Jamaica's oldest daily paper, ''The Gleaner''. Its founding editor i ...
'', 25 September 2011. In 2003 he launched the successful "
100 Great Black Britons
''100 Great Black Britons'' is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for '' 100 Greatest Brit ...
" campaign, in response to a television series broadcast by the BBC called ''
100 Greatest Britons
''100 Greatest Britons'' is a television series that was broadcast by the BBC in 2002. It was based on a television poll conducted to determine who the British people at that time considered the greatest Britons in history. The series included in ...
'' (a list topped by
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
through public nomination), in order "to raise the profile of the Black contribution to Britain and to challenge the notion of Britishness."
The campaign received wide coverage in the national print and television media, with Mary Seacole eventually announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton. In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the poll, and the results of the updated poll were revealed in a new book entitled ''100 Great Black Britons'', written by Vernon with Angelina Osborne, that was published on 24 September 2020.
Windrush Day and community activism
Vernon was among the first to call for the national celebration of " Windrush Day" on 22 June, to recognise the migrant contribution to UK society, marking the day in 1948 when the ''
Empire Windrush
HMT ''Empire Windrush'', originally MV ''Monte Rosa'', was a passenger liner and cruise ship launched in Germany in 1930. She was owned and operated by the German shipping line in the 1930s under the name ''Monte Rosa''. During World War II she ...
'' docked at Tilbury, bringing the first big group of post-war migrants from the West Indies to Britain.Patrick Vernon "Why Windrush Day matters" British Future, 21 June 2013. He was made an
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 2012, in recognition of his work to promote health equality for Black and minority ethnic communities.
In 2017 Vernon was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society (RHS) and he is a member of the RHS's Race, Ethnicity and Equality Working Group, which in 2018 published ''Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History: A Report and Resource for Change''.
In May 2018, following his earlier campaign for Windrush Day and his 2013 petition to the British government, Vernon relaunched a petition asking the Prime Minister to recognise June 22 as a national day to commemorate and celebrate migration and migrant communities in Britain. It was later announced by the government that an annual Windrush Day would be celebrated, supported by a grant of up to £500,000, to recognise and honour the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants and to "keep their legacy alive for future generations, ensuring that we all celebrate the diversity of Britain’s history."
In April 2020 after his sister's partner died from the COVID-19 virus, Vernon set up a fundraising initiative called "The Majonzi Fund" which will provide families from Black & Minority ethnicities with access to small financial grants that can be used to access bereavement counselling and organise memorial events and tributes after the social lockdown has been lifted.
Vernon featured on the August 2020 cover of British ''Vogue'' as one of 20 activists "ready to change the world".
Vernon played a pivotal role in obtaining a Blue Plaque in memory of British immigrant rights activist Paulette Wilson, a member of the Windrush Generation. The plaque was launched with campaigners including Claire Darke at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre. The Centre is a cornerstone of the area’s local Caribbean community and was formerly the constituency office of Enoch Powell where the infamous Rivers of Blood speech was written.
Political career
Vernon served for eight years as a Labour councillor for the Queensbridge ward in the
London Borough of Hackney
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, stepping down in May 2014, when the ward was abolished."The last supper: Patrick Vernon dines with Hackney Citizen" ''Hackney Citizen'', 5 June 2014. He was appointed as chair of the Labour Party's Race Equality Advisory Group in December 2015.
Controversy
In 2015 Vernon was caught up in controversy after he asserted that the design of the
flag of the Black Country
The Black Country flag is the flag of the Black Country region of England. It was registered with the Flag Institute as a regional flag in 2012.
History
The design was the winner of a competition run by the Black Country Living Museum in r ...
, which features a chain motif, was offensive and insensitive. Vernon has claimed that this led to him being "dragged into an online hate campaign after saying that the flag's chain motif represents an image of an industry which profited from the transatlantic slave trade."
Cultural contributions
As a film-maker, Vernon's work includes directing and producing '' A Charmed Life'', a documentary about the Caribbean contribution in the UK during World War II, focusing on Jamaican ex-serviceman Eddie Martin Noble.
Among the outlets for which Vernon writes are '' The Guardian'', '' The Voice'', and
Media Diversified Media Diversified is a UK-based nonprofit media and advocacy organisation for writers and journalists of colour, founded by filmmaker Samantha Asumadu in 2013. It publishes nonfiction articles by a variety of writers at its website, which is updated ...
. In 2017, the 30th anniversary of Black History Month in Britain, he was appointed as guest editor for ''Black History Month Magazine''.
As MC Patrick Vernon, he presents ''Museum of Grooves'', a podcast that explores Afrofuturism.
Bibliography
* With Angelina Osborne, ''100 Great Black Britons'', Robinson Press. 2020; .
*2003: CRE Race in the Media Awards for New Media
*2003:
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
recognition as "Pioneer of the Nation" for Cultural History
*2004: Windrush Awards winners for Internet and Technology and Community Champion
*2005: National Ethnic Minority Social Enterprise Award
*2006: CRE Race in the Media Awards runner-up in New Media
*2007: Clore Leadership Fellow
*2009: a community space in the Chalkhill Health and Community Centre, near Wembley Stadium, was named "Vernon Hall" in 2010, in recognition of his work locally as a former senior NHS manager in Brent.
*2012: awarded
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
Health Service Journal
''Health Service Journal'' (''HSJ'') is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
History
The '' Poor Law Officers' Journal'' was established in 1892. In 1930, it changed its name after ...